Introduction
Have you ever thought about how things would work if geography did not exist? Geography is normally considered a field of study that only involves maps, countries, rivers, and mountains. Yet, the importance of this science goes much deeper than this as the absence of knowledge of any geographic features can make our everyday activities much more difficult to organize. Students pursuing an M.A. in Geography explore these concepts in greater depth and understand how geographical knowledge influences modern society.
What would happen if we woke up and found out that no information on any geographical issues exists at all? This means there would be no maps, roads, weather forecast, and even basic understanding of locations and directions. Let us take a closer look at how such a day could go and see why geography is important for the current civilization.
Getting Lost Without Maps
The first problem of living a life without geography would be that of navigation. We depend heavily on maps, GPS devices, and mapping applications to help us travel from one point to the other. Whether we are commuting to office, walking to our friend’s house, or going to a new city, we use maps for all our travels.
Without geography, there will be no maps. It would be very difficult for anyone to reach his destination. The services of couriers will become non-existent. It will take a lot of time for an ambulance to locate the patient who needs urgent care, which could prove fatal.
Simple tasks like going to school, going to the market, or attending an important business meeting will turn into nightmares, as many people will get stuck because they do not know their location.
Life without Roads and Transportation Planning
Roads are indeed not built randomly. It is important for geographical studies to help establish how and where roads, railroads, and airports are to be built. Geographical knowledge plays an integral part in making the transport system efficient.
In the absence of geographical information, the entire transport system will collapse. Cities will experience a lot of traffic since there will be no systematic way of building roads. There will be shortages of food and basic necessities since items will not be transported in an efficient manner.
Geography forms an important part of the buses, railroads, and metros. Otherwise, movement would have been a problem.
No Weather Forecasts, No Preparation
The first effect of not having geography is the lack of weather predictions. Weather predictions depend on geography in terms of geographical information, satellite images, and climate.
Imagine going out without any information regarding whether there will be rains, storms, or extremely hot weather. Farmers would be unable to irrigate their fields or harvest. Fishermen would be unaware of unsafe weather at sea. It would also become difficult for airlines to navigate through stormy weather, hence making flights accident-prone.
Simple things that we rely on weather predictions to decide have to be left to chance.
There Would Be Disruptions in the Food Supply Chain
Many people fail to recognize the fact that geography plays a vital part in food production and distribution. Different crops grow under different climatic conditions and soil types. Farmers depend on geographical knowledge for crop selection and resource management.
Geography will make agricultural planning a hard task. Farmers may plant crops in inappropriate regions, resulting in reduced crop yields and shortage of food. Transportation issues would also create more complications.
The fruits, vegetables, grains, and dairy products that we eat daily often come from very far distances. Without geographical planning and transportation, supermarket shelves would be empty.
Challenges Associated With Communication and Technology
Modern technology is highly dependent on geography. The mobile network, internet service providers, and satellite communication system depend on geographical information.
Without GPS technology, which forms the basis of navigational applications, food delivery systems, sharing economy, and logistical firms, many industries will be greatly affected since they operate on geographic information.
Even social networking sites depend on geographic information when posting location tags and content that applies to a particular region.
Natural Disaster Management Will Be Affected
Geography provides information on the causes of natural disasters like flooding, earthquakes, cyclones, droughts, and landslides.
Disasters would catch everyone by surprise without the help of geography, and governments would find it hard to arrange evacuation and rescue missions. In other words, the destructive effect of natural catastrophes would be much higher.
In particular, geographical analysis of the river course, precipitation and land level helps to define regions that are prone to flooding. Consequently, without geography people would be at risk from the effects of their environment.
Economic Activity Would Be Slower
Geography plays an important role in analyzing markets, managing transportation and organizing business location. It is vital for companies when deciding where to set up factories, storage buildings and stores.
Without geography, transportation would be less effective, which would lead to higher expenses, unpredictable delivery terms and lower economic productivity. Tourism industry, being among the biggest in the world, would not be able to function properly without geographic data.
Understanding Our Environment
Geography is what enables us to comprehend the interdependence between man and nature. Geography enables us to comprehend why some areas turn into desert zones, why other areas receive heavy rains, etc. It also teaches us the effect of climatic conditions on ecosystems.
The lack of knowledge of geography makes it impossible for people to comprehend the existing environmental issues such as global warming, deforestation, pollution, and depletion of resources. In this case, it will be difficult for people to find ways of solving these problems in the interest of future generations.
Geography promotes environmental awareness and makes societies take rational actions in the field of resource conservation.
Conclusion:
A day without geography would be much more difficult than most people can imagine. People would have difficulty finding the right direction to go, there would be transportation problems, the problem of weather forecasts would arise, people would be exposed to difficulties in obtaining food, they would be endangered by natural disasters and much more. Modern technology, communication, business and even the government of countries need geography. Geography is not only a subject taught at schools but a practical instrument which affects our everyday life.
Author
Ms. Shaifali Vijay
Assistant Professor, Department of Social Science
Biyani Group of Colleges,Jaipur
